On Africa Day last Thursday (25 May), local fisheries were part of a public awareness and information campaign in Cape Town in a bid to stop further government investment in fossil fuels, particularly offshore oil and gas.
According to The Green Connection’s Strategic Lead Liziwe McDaid, the goal of the campaign was to popularise the issues relating to these offshore projects, especially highlighting their potential impact on the ocean and the small-scale fishers who depend on it.
“Since the ocean is a natural resource that belongs to everyone, and decisions taken now could impact South Africans for generations, it makes sense civil society must have a say,” she said. “In addition, we believe that government should deal more decisively with the climate crises and should be moving the country toward a just transition.”
Joined by small-scale fishers and various other civil society organisations including Coastal Links, Masifundise, Extinction Rebellion, 350.org and Africa Climate Alliance called on government to end the country’s dependence on fossil fuels – particularly to stop all offshore oil and gas projects.
The Green Connection supports those opposing offshore oil and gas projects. McDaid will be in Gqeberha to support those communities opposing Shell in court this week.
Saldanha small-scale fisher Carmelita Mostert warned big companies to stay out of the oceans. “We cannot eat oil and gas, and it will damage our main source of food,” she said. “We live and eat from the ocean and therefore we need our oceans to be ‘clean and safe’ for healthy fishing for a sustainable living. We say ‘No!’ to oil and gas drilling.”
Solene Smith of Coastal Links Langebaan added to Mostert’s sentiment. “Our communities face a lot of challenges,” she said, “and with the threat of Karpowerships and the persistent attempts to conduct seismic surveys (which are related to oil and gas extraction), we face even more obstacles.
“We are traditional fishers who love our oceans, and we will not allow anyone to come here to put our oceans in danger. We do not want oil and gas drilling in our oceans. This is not only our heritage to protect for our future generations – our ancestors have been here for centuries – but this is also how we make our living.
“The ocean is our livelihood and we want a say in what happens to it. At least our local municipality has indicated that they are eager to help us protect the oceans. Even though we know that there are many mountains to climb, we will never give up.”
